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Gun Safety: I Invite You To Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

How much do you know about guns? Probably a lot, right? I wouldn't be surprised if that was your answer, even if it isn't true. There's no shame in it, but it's important to know one's limitations. Especially when it comes to guns.

In many respects, using a gun is similar to having sex: You may THINK you know everything there is to know about it, but until you've experienced the physical sensations of each (inflamed passions, pounding pulse, lots of screaming, maybe some blood, and in the end you're huddled in a corner with your head in your hands repeatedly sobbing "Oh god...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..." until finally the police arrive and kick down the door), you can't truly claim to be any kind of expert.
In any case, all I'm trying to say is: You can always stand to learn something new about any subject. So let's talk guns.

As
any gunslinger worth his salt will tell you, safety is one of the most important aspects of gunplay. Let's begin with the facts: Every year, throughout the world, people fire bullets out of guns. Some of these bullets strike their intended target (shoplifters, litterers, suspected rapists) but an equal number of them end up striking innocent children because they were fired by fancy pants hollywood bigshots who don't know the first thing about gun safety. Not cool.

Wise up America: The paranoid white man who deliberately guns down a mischevious child who wanders onto his property because he thought the kid might steal something is NOT the problem here. That poor man didn't didn't WANT to murder that innocent child, he HAD to do it. The bill of rights forced his hand.

No, when it comes to guns, the REAL menace to the public is an all-around lack of common sense when it comes to handling them. Education will keep our families safe.

Three Key Rules

When
we think about gun safety, we should always be sure to remember the 3
(three) tenets of firearm safeness. They are as follows (in
alphabetical order):

1. Loaded or Unloaded? YOUR SAFETY is the Real Mystery…

Bottom line folks: Never point a loaded gun at someone. If you’re going to play with a gun, ALWAYS MAKE SURE IT IS UNLOADED FIRST.
Take out the clip and set it on a coffee table or counter. And, just to
be doublesafe, point the gun into a sink or stack of pillows, and try
to fire it six times (this is how many bullets are in a clip). This way
you know it’s empty. The life you save could be your own.

2. Kids & Guns Don’t Mix!

We’ve
all heard the stories; little Ronald goes into his father’s unlocked
gun cabinet and takes out a machine gun. “Let’s play army”, he says to
sister Suzy, “you can be the brown man and I’ll be America.” “Alright.”
Says Suzy.

Soon enough, little Ronald is doing a nickel down at Attica and
mommy and daddy are picking pieces of sister Suzy’s skull out of the
shag carpeting. This might seem gross to you, but that’s the facts,
bub. Life is cruel, and we all die alone and afraid, like sniveling
beasts. Oh, but yeah…the point of this one was supposed to be: lock up your guns.

3. One at Hand (For Robbers)

At
first, this is going to seem like a contradiction to the last one, but
actually it isn’t. If you’re keeping guns around for self-defense, you
should always keep a loaded one near where you sleep. It doesn’t much
matter where (Under a pillow, in a drawer, under a stack of newspapers,
in a toychest) but just make sure it’s there.

The reason
behind this is simple: If random crooks break in and try to knife your
family, the guns in your safe aren’t going to do you much good. What
are you going to say, “Can you please hold on a minute insane
criminals, I just have to find the keys, head over to my safe, unlock
it, find a gun, get some bullets out, load it, and then shoot you
because by a one-in-two-billion chance you randomly happened to break
into my quiet suburban home in the middle of the night for no apparent
reason?” Brother, you’ve got problems! Suggestion: Keep a loaded gun in your shirt pocket at all times.

How to Shoot Criminals

Some
might say it’s foolish to try to teach someone to fire a gun at a
badguy over the internet. Luckily I have a lot more faith in my
readership than these goombas do. I’m sure firing a gun is not too
difficult at all, and there’s no reason to be afraid to try. My father
always said “If you can’t try, you can’t fail or you can’t win.” I
think this definitely applies to gun safety too. Anywhoo, let’s finish
off this article with some battle tips.

Snap the Gun Forward

We’ve
all seen it in the old films: A cowboy pokes out at the air in front of
him with his gun each time he shoots. This may look silly, but actually
there’s a scientific reason behind it: It adds momentum to your bullet.
You may not think this would be required with modern guns, but every
little bit helps. So push your gun out each time you fire a shot to make sure the enemy feels the full force of your bullets.

Aim for the Head

The
head is the easiest place to hit on a target. It’s at the top of their
body, and usually not covered by clothing. Shooting someone in the
chest is pointless. Any criminal worth his salts will be wearing a
steel chest plate.

Shoot Ahead of Runners

If you’ve ever
played a realistic war video game, you’ll know that you have to do what
is called “leading the target on”. This means that you shoot in front of
them instead of at them, since a bullet takes 3-4 seconds to reach
its destination.

Have Fun & Don’t Blame the Gun

Lastly
(but not leastly) be sure and have a great time with your gun. Guns
have gotten a bad rap over the years (mostly because of all the
deaths), but it’s important to remember that guns didn’t cause those
deaths. It was the crooks who did it. If people would just stop
committing crimes, we wouldn’t need to buy assault rifles and dangerous
old civil war pistols anymore. But unfortunately, poor people are still
going want HDTVs and MP3 players even though they can’t afford them and
don’t even really know what they are, so I think guns are here to stay.

Thank you, good night, and may Jupiter’s blessings forever be upon you. Oh and again, check out the TWOPREVIOUS bullying articles right now if you haven't already. Jupiter's blessings again.